Teaching tips brought to you from the classroom of Ms Mac in an inner-city school.

Friday, 17 April 2009

Rewards for secondary students and sixth-form: Bring on the pin badges!

Lots of companies make good reward pin badges for students; some are advertised on the sponsored links to the left. But, though good for KS3, they are too baby-ish for older students, especially sixth-formers. They can also be expensive, sometimes costing 50p+ per badge.

To find something more thrifty and mature I scoured ebay to find 'job lots' of badges. With my rewards budget fixed at £10, I found many ex-collectors offer deals on variety bags full of random badges. For example, the lot displayed to the right is of 50+ badges and is currently selling for £3.50. That's 7p a badge - almost as cheap as stickers!

At the beginning of this year I bought three lots for less than £10 and kept the badges in one of the boxes sent to me. When students deserve a reward they 'lucky dip' into the bag. Sometime the badge is brilliant; sometimes it's rubbish. Yet they appreciate the randomness and the individual nature of the prize.

Altneratively, if you like to give rewards regularly, keep with stickers but customise them with more grown-up phrasing. I have used http://www.thestickerfactory.co.uk/ every year I've been teaching. You can save your customised phrasings for future orders and their multi-image, multi-captioned stickers mean you can get LOTS of different phrases at a reasonable price.

About The Author....

Hello....I write this site after three years of teaching in "challenging urban complex schools" in London. Read more here...

I'm not a pro-blogger (as the layout gives away) so updating times sometimes vary, but I try to write each day. I also love hearing about what others do in their classrooms, so please comment away! If there is a topic you would like tips for, or you wish to contribute an idea (I promise to credit you!) then, please email dailyteachingtips@gmail.com

Here is my classroom on a good day when all the hints and tips are working out!